Ethan wrote an OPED last week in the Scotsman that’s worth reading: Don’t Follow Us into a Disastrous War on Drugs
With some pressure in the UK for government to revert cannabis to class B (harsher penalties), Ethan uses the United States as a prime example of how idiotic that would be.
It’s an interesting read — nothing particularly new to us, but good background for Europeans on how stupid we are about drug policy in the U.S.
I particularly liked this quote (a good one to use when talking to those who fear that legalization will somehow turn society into a drug-free-for-all):
The bottom line is that there is a way to take cannabis out of the black market – that is to tax it, control it and regulate it. The government pretends that prohibition represents the ultimate form of regulation when in fact prohibition represents the abdication of regulation. That essentially leaves drugs in the hands of criminals. [emphasis added]